The Foreseeable Future
by cleverdistraction
Summary: Grace and Wayne discuss their announcement in "Bleeding Heart" and what exactly it meant--and what it means for their future. Grace/Rigsby, Post-Bleeding Heart.


A/N: Here is where I beg all the readers to start writing. I'm not new to the show, but super new to my own flailing fangirly side of it, so it would please me to no end if we gave Grace & Rigsby some more love! /end PSA.

Also, lame title, I know. Titles and I don't always get along. Plus, this is my first Grace/Rigsby fic, so I've bee struggling with the characterization all week. It's meant to be mostly light-hearted and fun. Post-Bleeding Heart. Let me know what you think!

Disclaimer: Not mine. I wish…

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**The Foreseeable Future**

"Well," Grace said slowly, leaning against the railing of the back staircase near the elevators. She bit her lip and looked around for inquisitive ears before stumbling over her next few words, "that certainly could have gone better."

Rigsby looked at her with a lopsided grimace and let out the breath he hadn't realized he had been holding. He cast his eyes downward, unwilling to chance a look at her. What if she had second thoughts about continuing their relationship after Libson's obviously displeased reaction? He wasn't sure he could take it. If there was any measure of regret in those beautiful eyes, he knew he would lose it.

"Yeah," he said quietly, "yeah, I guess it could have."

He didn't see it when she smiled gently at him, so she made her way over to the wall he was leaning against and positioned herself just next to him. She nudged him with her shoulder lightly, causing him to look up at her. His eyes belied an agonizing worry that she hadn't seen since she had gotten shot.

"Hey," she prodded quietly. "Everything will be fine. We talked about this, remember? Nothing can break us now. No secrets, no lies. Not even bosses. We'll be fine."

He gave her a small lop-sided smile--the one that made him look particularly like a little kid. She loved that smile--loved the sweetness and the love behind it. When he trained it on her, she felt her heart stop and leap inside her chest.

"Yeah, you're right."

"But, really," she started, she turned her body to face his, her eyes shining with mischief, "did you have to make it sound like a Baz Luhrmann movie?"

"What?" he asked, confusion rippling through his strong features.

"You know--_Australia_? That Romeo and Juliet remake? _Moulin Rouge_?"

"Oh...yeah," he admitted, understanding her reference. He put on a show of regaining some semblance of male bravado as he spoke his next words, sticking out his chest and standing up just a little straighter. "I didn't sound like that."

"I'm pretty sure that you stole a line right out of _Moulin Rouge_. I'm not entirely sure how I should feel about that."

"Hey, I did not quote th--"

"Come what may? There's a whole _song_ in that movie with that name! You're busted, so don't even try to deny it."

"Okay, fine, so I got a little carried away...It's not _that_ big a deal, Grace."

"You're right...and you did the hard work in there, anyway, so thank you." She paused for a moment, obviously trying to work out what she wanted to say next. "But why 'lovers'? That makes us sound like some middle-aged couple having an affair."

"Graaace," he groaned deeply. "I don't know! It just came out. If you wanted it said eloquently without any movie references or corny lines, then maybe you should have just said it yourself."

He let out a huff and cast his eyes downward once again, obviously frustrated at being picked on by his so-called loving girlfriend. He was beginning to think that, as a rule, she attempted to get a rise out of him at least once a day. She seemed to delight in his embarrassment.

Her eyebrows knitted together, torn between comfort and confusion. Any other day, she would have been pleased with the pink flush spreading across his cheeks and the stiffness in his shoulders. She _did_ love to tease him. He was so innocently adorable when he felt out of place; it was something that she had come to love in him. It was something that, in any other man, would have seemed unfortunate or unappealing, but Wayne wore it like a badge. It made him human and fallible, sexy and beautiful.

But today, she couldn't stop to soothe his bruised pride. She needed answers--one in particular--and if she knew all the right buttons to push to bring it up without consequence.

"But you don't...think of us that way, do you?" Her brow wrinkled together as she spoke, obviously trying to work something out in her head.

"What do you mean? We're sleeping together, Grace. We _are_ lovers."

"Is that all?" Her voice sounded small, almost afraid. He realized his mistake immediately, but treaded forward carefully, aware of how easily he could make a mess of this with one wrong comment.

He looked around suspiciously, and seeing no one, brushed his knuckles softly across her cheekbone to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. He pulled back just enough to rest his hand against the brick wall next to her head as he leaned into her protectively.

"Grace, I never would have agreed to tell Lisbon if you didn't mean everything in the world to me. It may not have gone over smoothly and I may have been scared out of my mind, but this relationship? Something like this--like _you_--doesn't come around more than once. I'm _not_ letting you get away." He pulled back from her, realizing that his body, like a magnet, had gravitated even more toward hers as he spoke. Keeping a professional distance between them, he cleared his throat gently before continuing, his voice low and sweet. "So, yeah...I think we're more than that."

"Okay...okay," she said firmly, nodding her head as she spoke. She paused, eyes adrift, letting his words sink in fully before continuing. He watched her intently as she slowly came back to him, lifting her eyes to his. "I know you weren't the most comfortable with the idea of telling them like this, so it means a lot to me that you did it anyway. Thank you."

He looked up at her with hopeful eyes. The adoration written plainly across his face was dizzying. She couldn't help but gave him a small smile in return, wishing that they were anywhere but hiding out by the back staircase of the CBI. She bit her lip and tilted her head toward his, looking up into his eyes through a curtain of lashes.

"You know.." she whispered, brushing her fingers lazily up and down the back of his hand a few times before dropping her hand quickly to her side, mindful of the sounds of shuffling feet nearby. "When we get home tonight, I want to show you just how thankful I am."

_Naughty Grace_, he thought with an audible groan. He scrubbed a hand over his face and coughed roughly, trying to rid his body of the effect her breathy words had on him.

"God, you gotta stop that or we'll be skating on some pretty thin ice on our way out of here."

"Point taken," she said with a low chuckle. "We should...probably get back. Separately. Lisbon doesn't seem happy to see either of us right now and I don't think we should rock the boat."

"Yeah. Right. Well, I am pretty hungry right now--missed the donuts," he said, his face lighting up goofily at the mention of the sugary treat. Some days, she secretly wondered if a really good cinnamon roll would cause his eyes to wander from her. Today, however, his demanding stomach was a blessing.

"Go. Feed yourself," she joked, poking himself in the chest.

"Chocolate cupcakes here I come!" he mumbled to himself on this way over to the elevator. She cleared her throat from behind him, one eyebrow arched perfectly in amusement. Rigsby's face fell. He knew that look.

She took a step closer, her words a mere whisper as she spoke. "Wayne Rigsby, so help me, if you eat cupcakes and then sugar crash at my apartment tonight, I will be _very_ disappointed."

"Apple it is, then," he remarked disappointedly, barely recovering from the smoldering look she gave him as she backed away.

"Just think of it as an investment in your future health. Keeping you around for the foreseeable future is getting to be very important to me. The best way to do that, of course, is diet and..._exercise._"

Rigsby nearly choked on his own words as the elevator signaled its presence. His voice was unsteady as he boarded it. "I really think the key element here is exercise."

"Huh, we'll see..." she said teasingly, tossing him a wink as he let out a deep groan as the elevator doors began to shut.

Suddenly, the doors came to a halt and retreated as his hand struck out to hold them. His head peaked out just enough to look at her.

"Grace?" he called softly. He looked at her accusingly as she turned around to face him. "My foreseeable future? It's all yours."

His face softened and he gave her a small smile before moving back enough to allow the doors to shut.

She laughed to herself, unable to keep the smile from her face as she bit her lower lip and turned to walk away.

The End.

A/N 2: Review! It will cheer me up as I write portions of my thesis tonight and tomorrow!


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